Deconstruction of Album covers

By looking at several different artist's album covers, it enables me to begin thinking about what image and representation they are trying to bring across, and the effects that are used to do this, which is what makes them so effective, and look so great on the front cover of the CD case.

First album:
Ludacris - 'Word of mouf'



















Now as you can see, an instant sense of distortion has been represented, through the use of image manipulation. The dog's mouth looks to have been stretched, but has infact been given a set of human teeth instead. The actual artist 'Ludacris' is the man stood next to the dog, who also has been photoshopped, to give the impression that he has a really big afro, and that he is somewhat rebellious due to the facial expression he is giving off and his choice of 'baggy', loose clothing.

The artist himself is a very loud, aggressive rap artist in his way of rap, and this album tells us that, due to the points listed above, but also how the dog beside him is a known aggressive dog, the bulldog, and how Ludacris is frowning, and from the looks of it, shouting. The colours are widespread, but quite dull, representing the streets. Ludacris is a very influential artist, and by representing himself as small, but with the big afro and showing passion and aggression, he will successfully appeal to the younger audience with this album, as this will humour them, and think it's 'cool'.


Second album:
Ace Hood - Gutta




















A sense of authority is shown here, as artist Ace Hood is sat before you with his hands flat down on the table and a lot of money infront of him. he is a relatively new artist, yet he is represented as someone important from this front cover. How do we know this? Well the use of mise en scene. The army-type clothing, with the badges and ranks stitched on (I dont know what they mean but you dont need to, if he has some badges and ranks stitched on then he would be quite important), and the use of money to show that he is rich, and someone important, 'big' to the topic, which in this case is the Rap/hip hop music industry. Aswell as the use of army clothing to show him as being superior, the use of a cap has been used to link back to the fact he is involved within the rap industry, as this style of cap, the 'new era' are those worn commonly by most rap artists who wear caps.

The use of gold and green represents this theme of money and wealth, alongside the idea of authority and being superior. Ace Hood looks more serious than he actually is as an artist, he is chilled and creates music, yet here he is shown as some army officer with a handful or more of money infront of him, which has created this high figure status and made him out to be an important person, despite this being his first major album, and being an early figure in the music industry.